Ahh, floating along in Queens Reach. We were waiting for slack to enter Princess Louisa.

But now we are back in Coal Harbour for a few days. I should get time to do some more posts. It's a shock to the system. Sirens, float planes, traffic, whoa! 

​More later!

I have to say that when I first started seeing the ads for Instant Pot, it made me think of an infomercial. It's one pretty inexpensive appliance that can do it all! Well, guess what, it really can. 

One of the ways I like to use it is to heat up soup that I have made. This method is so perfect for travel days.

When I was at home, I made batches of soups, chili, meatballs, etc. So in the picture I have my Food Saver sealed chili and the IP with water in it. I generally have pulled the soup from the freezer the night before and defrosted it. But if I didn't, I'd just stick it in the pot on the "keep warm" setting for a couple hours to defrost.

Then I put the bag into the pot and put it on soup mode which will boil the water and heat the soup in the bag. I usually place the pot in the sink just in case of wake/etc. 

Apologize for the dearth of posts. Up here in Desolation there is rarely enough cell connectivity for blogging. And the marina (etc) wifi has been a joke.  But at the moment we are anchored in Pender Harbor and seem to have a decent cell signal.

It's been quite eventful. One of the things I have come to realize on this trip is that basically everything is new to us. The boat is still new. Every anchorage is new. We have had some new mechanical gremlins to get through (engine, generator, etc). 

I plan to do a series of posts on all our locations, friends we met up with and so on. But I'll wait until I have a solid internet connection. 

I have been taking lots of pictures (new camera) and with the new drone as well! It's a DJI Mavic Pro 2. My first drone. I waited a long time, until the technology was really solid as well as a decent size sensor, which this one has.

This was shot in Von Donop Inlet early one morning. I got some killer shots besides this one. In the back, at right, is our friend David on his Nordhavn Mary Pearl. We met up with them several times and it was a delight. 

Speaking of friends, it was quite a nice day when along comes old friend John on Sarah Brooks. I met him 3 or 4 years ago when his boat was in charter. At the time I thought a Fleming would be likely for us. He gave us some great tips via radio. Great to see you John!

We has also met up with Kevin and Allison on the Nordhavn Red Rover. They highly recommended Toba Wilderness Marina (https://www.tobawilderness.com/) so we gave it a shot. Mary Pearl was there too, along with other friends from Trawlerfest, Jim and Joyce on Sequel (the Nordie at left). What a spectacular setting.

Was really fun hosting a dinner party on board Mahalo.

Here is the setting from about 1,400 feet up. Love that drone!

This was only the second or third time I flew the drone off the boat. This is an unnamed cove on Read Island, which I have now dubbed "Paradise Cove." We had this gorgeous spot all to ourselves for two nights, and then a third with one small sailboat.

Yours truly taking it all in from the comfort of our tender. This was a magical spot for sure. Many more posts coming!

One of the things on our agenda this trip is to take more opportunities for hiking. We had read about a hike in Pender. Tendered over to this trailhead. Turns out it is only a half a K walk, hardly making it worth tying up the tender! 

But we had a nice view of Mahalo and Garden Bay.
​

The town had installed quite a pretty garden for us to take in. 

Okay this setting isn't quite as spectacular as a similar recent photo of Deb I took.

Was this just in May? Were we really in France? Really in Monet's garden? We sure were. But anyway, back to B.C. 

Ace boating friend David Evans (Nordhavn guy) highly recommended Budabing BBQ burgers so of course we have to try them. And free inspiration life message! We listened to some wonderful live music. I recorded some, but there isn't enough bandwidth to upload it, what a shame.

And the smile says it all! Thanks David, for the great recommendation. We shared the table with another David and his wife, B.C. residents! They invited us to a BBQ they are having tomorrow.

But we are outta here. Tomorrow we will be in Desolation Sound if all goes well. Wish us luck.

[Hey, is that a liquor store back there????]

Yaaay, we are in Garden Bay in Pender Harbour. And what's this, a welcoming committee? 

Bagpipes and kilts? Too much! 

Turns out every Friday night is a "fun boat tour" here. And it's also B.C. Day weekend! So the locals are in an especially good mood.  (We are in B.C., sounds like trouble, eh?)

I can't quite get used to having these boats anchored less than 200 feet from us. Not to mention sailboat anchoring technique... throw it over, then stop forward motion after a minute or so. Done! So far no bumps or bruises though. Just how they do it here.

We go for a little cruise ourselves in the tender, then return to home base. Sweet! Salmon on the bbq tonight. Explore Pender a bit tomorrow.